Celebrate Chinese New Year with balance

Let's get this out of the way: I don't like Chinese food -- at least the kind you usually get at your local suburban restaurant, where everything tastes like it was made in the same brown sauce.

I DO love a celebration, and the next big party is Chinese New Year beginning Feb. 7.

With my limited cooking skills I'm not about to pull out the wok and prepare a traditional new year dish such as jau gok (a dumpling) or nian gao (glutinous rice-based dish). But I know that my friend and cookbook author Mitchell Davis makes a delicious treat for graduation ceremonies at the International Taoist Tai Chi Society in New York City: yin-yang cookies -- chocolate and vanilla cookies formed into the shape of the black-and-white symbol that in Chinese philosophy represents the understanding of how the universe works.

Originating in the early Han dynasty, around the time of the birth of Christ, yin and yang are two opposing yet complementary principles or forces such as light (yang) and dark (yin), or wealth and poverty.

In the United States, when we talk yin-yang we often think of balance and harmony. And what better way to honor the new year than with harmony and balance in your universe? And with refrigerator cookies!

Yep, these cookies are simple refrigerator cookies, earning the name because the dough is chilled in the refrigerator. Unifying the two doughs into the yin-yang symbol is the only tricky part of this basic recipe, Davis says.

Getting the cookies to look like the yin-yang symbol -- Taijitu in Chinese -- requires two batches of dough, one vanilla and one chocolate. Throughout the process it's best to work with the vanilla (the yang) dough first to keep it free of chocolate (the yin) flecks. There's also less dishwashing involved.

Well-chilled dough is essential to getting the correct shape. Don't worry if the dough feels too cold when you take it out of the fridge; your warm hands will make it pliable.

If you've ever worked with Play-Doh you're qualified to roll out the dough. (Again, vanilla first.)

As you're rolling, periodically push in on the sides to help shape the logs. It's more important to have logs of roughly equal diameter then it is for them to be of equal length -- you can just lop off the excess if one log is longer than the other.

Imagine a 3-D apostrophe when shaping each dough log into its half of the cookie -- that's what a cross section should look like. To create the shape, place your thumbs tip to tip slightly off center on the log. Using your fingers to hold the log in place, make about a 1/2-inch depression along the length of the log. Then gently flatten the smaller side: you don't want a pointy tip.

The two logs fit together like pieces of a puzzle, and you solidify the connection by smoothing the seams and rolling them together. The cookies are later sliced off.

The last step, and in my opinion, the most clever aspect of the recipe is the use of the chocolate chips inserted into the dough to complete the symbol. The chips represent the dots of dark and light embedded within their opposite in the symbol, showing that each half of yin-yang cannot exist without the other. Put the chip -- flat side up -- into the dough so it settles just below the surface.

Yin-Yang cookies

Start to finish: 5 1/2 hours (30 minutes active)

Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies

For the vanilla dough:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the chocolate dough:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup natural cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

For decorating:

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

To prepare the vanilla dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy and smooth, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture, using a spoon or an electric mixer with a paddle attachment to form a stiff dough. Set aside.

To prepare the chocolate dough:

In a second large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy and smooth, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture, using a spoon or an electric mixer with a paddle attachment to form a stiff dough. Set aside.

Cover both doughs with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours, or until firm enough to shape.

Divide each dough in half. Shape each half of the vanilla dough into a log, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 8 to 9 inches long. Rolling it in a piece of wax paper on the counter will help make it smooth.

Using your thumbs, make an indentation along one long side of the log to create an apostrophe shape. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate. With clean, dry hands, repeat the shaping process with the chocolate dough.

Remove the vanilla dough from the refrigerator and unwrap one piece. Invert the vanilla cookie dough into one of the chocolate ones to make a round, interlocking yin-yang log. Roll a few times on the counter to ensure they adhere.

Repeat with the remaining logs. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours and up to overnight. The dough also can also be frozen.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a serrated knife, cut the cookie dough into 1/4-inch thick disks and arrange them on the pans about 1 1/2 inches apart. Invert one white chocolate chip in the chocolate half of each cookie and a chocolate chip in the vanilla half.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies have spread, puffed and begun to brown at the edges. Let cool on the pans 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week or freeze up to one month.